You are here

Christ The King Students Raise Funds For Cystic Fibrosis Research

Christ The King Students Raise Funds For Cystic Fibrosis Research

Rachel Rodemann • Times Record / Eli Murray holds up the Team Eli bucket while his best friend, Ryson Williams, holds up the Team Eli sign for cystic fibrosis research Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2013, at Christ the King school, as they kick off the October fundraiser.

Christ The King Students Raise Funds For Cystic Fibrosis Research

Rachel Rodemann • Times Record / Christ the King students reach to hang their donation cards after donating money to support Team Eli and research for cystic fibrosis Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2013.

Christ The King Students Raise Funds For Cystic Fibrosis Research

Rachel Rodemann • Times Record / Christ the King students write their names on baseballs after donating money to support Team Eli and research for cystic fibrosis Wednesday Oct. 2, 2013.

Christ The King Students Raise Funds For Cystic Fibrosis Research

Rachel Rodemann • Times Record / Christ the King students reach to hang their donation cards after donating money to support Team Eli and research for cystic fibrosis Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2013.

Service to others is nothing new to Christ the King Catholic School students, who dedicate themselves to a different charitable act each month. Helping fight a disease that affects one of their own classmates, though, has been an entirely different experience.

Throughout October, students and teachers are raising money to support the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and thereby their classmate, Eli Murray, who was diagnosed with CF at 2 months old.

“We try to help out … people in the community, and reach out to them,” said CTK principal Marna Boltuc. “And we thought, ‘We ought to do something that is going to truly benefit even one of our own students.’”

The project was announced at the school’s monthly Terrific Tuesday assembly, and was celebrated by a full cadre of cheerleaders — including a costumed Boltuc — and wild applause from the audience.

Eli came to the front of the assembly room and carefully held a colorful Team Eli placard, joyful tears running down his 7-year-old face.

“Do you think we can fill the jar all the way?” Boltuc asked the cheering student body.

“We can do more,” shouted Eli’s best friend, Ryson Williams, springing to his feet and raising his fist.

Eli is your typical rowdy little boy, according to his mother, Candace Murray, who laughed as she watched him run excited laps around fellow students signing their names on baseball-shaped donation cards after donating to the Team Eli fund. “I don’t think he even sits,” she continued. “He runs everywhere he goes.”

Though Eli is full of spunk and smiles, his daily routine is different than that of most other rowdy little boys. Starting at 6 a.m., Eli puts on a mechanical vest that shakes him so the mucous that lines his lungs will come loose.

“He puts it on and talks like a helicopter,” Candace said, laughing.

“Then we do breakfast,” she added. “He’s got to take enzymes and all his daily medicines. He has four with meals and two with snacks, and then we have medicines that we have to take for liver and breathing and other medicines through the day.”

Eli takes close to 25 pills a day, and has inhaled breathing treatments and vest therapy twice a day.

That’s all in addition to his normal life, his mother clarified.

“We don’t emphasize it a lot at home; we try to just be as normal as possible. The routine has been in place since he was a baby,” she added. “It’s just a part of life.”

Every time Eli passed the fundraising bucket or the enormous display in the school hallway bearing his face in a giant baseball diamond, he lit up with a smile.

It’s so fun to have everyone raising money for CF, Eli said, adding that the fundraiser made him happy, even though having CF is not very fun at all.

As a reward for all their efforts, Boltuc let Eli choose the prize for filling up the donation bucket.

“Free dress for a month!” he shouted, thrilled with the prospect. Boltuc denied that request, but approved his second offer — a “Popsicle emergency” every time the bucket is filled.

During a Popsicle emergency, Boltuc bursts into classrooms, declaring a Popsicle emergency and delivering Popsicles to students in a race to beat them melting.

“I love Popsicle emergencies,” laughed Eli.

By the second week of the competition, students, parents and teachers had collected more than $400 for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, well on their way to several “Popsicle emergencies.”

Community members who would like to help fund the Team Eli contribution to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation can mail checks to Christ the King School, 1918 S. Greenwood Road, Fort Smith, AR 72901.